BEN WOODS

Accountancy giant EY is to plough “significant investment” into analytics, artificial intelligence and robotics as it notched up record revenue growth for the sixth year running.

The professional services firm said global revenues rose 9 per cent to $29.6 billion (£23.3bn) in the year ending 30 June.

The move was driven by a 13 per cent leap in revenues at its advisory business to some $7.85bn. It said the firm’s global innovation team was training its focus on “bringing leading-edge robotics and artificial intelligence to businesses”.

The figures come after PwC reported earlier this week that global revenues climbed 7 per cent to $35.9bn over the past year. Deloitte posted an 8 per cent rise in annual revenues last month.

Mark Weinberger, EY global chairman and chief executive, said the organisation had achieved solid results amid a difficult business environment.

“We are seeing continued global economic headwinds including geopolitical uncertainties, divergent monetary policy and turbulent emerging markets. Businesses are facing unprecedented disruption in their business models due to the pace and scale of technological innovation.”

Revenue picked up by 12.5 per cent in Asia-Pacific, while the Americas rose 9.7 per cent and Europe, Middle East, India and Africa grew 7.5 per cent.

The US led the charge in developed markets growth, rising 9.3 per cent to $12.2bn, thanks to double-digit growth across tax and transaction advisory services.